


Path of Darkness

by zetsubou_hana (Sakura_no_Miko)



Category: Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney
Genre: Alternate Universe, Character Study, Family, Gen, Kink Meme, Phoenix Wright Kink Meme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-06-22
Updated: 2008-06-22
Packaged: 2017-10-12 02:53:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/119980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sakura_no_Miko/pseuds/zetsubou_hana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><br/>Rating: PG-13<br/>Warnings: messing with the timeline, I guess?<br/>Disclaimer: I do not own Phoenix Wright or any of its characters. I make no profit from this fan-work.</p><p>Written for <a href="http://teagueful.livejournal.com/35657.html">The Phoenix Wright Kink Meme (Part 8)</a> and originally posted <a href="http://teagueful.livejournal.com/35657.html?thread=9996105#t9996105">here</a></p><p>
  <em>prompt: Pearl Fey is actually the daughter of Mia Fey and Diego Armando.</em>
</p><p>Morgan adopted her to save the family name from the shame of Mia having a child out of wedlock.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Path of Darkness

**Author's Note:**

>   
>  Rating: PG-13  
> Warnings: messing with the timeline, I guess?  
> Disclaimer: I do not own Phoenix Wright or any of its characters. I make no profit from this fan-work.
> 
> Written for [The Phoenix Wright Kink Meme (Part 8)](http://teagueful.livejournal.com/35657.html) and originally posted [here](http://teagueful.livejournal.com/35657.html?thread=9996105#t9996105)
> 
> _prompt: Pearl Fey is actually the daughter of Mia Fey and Diego Armando._
> 
> Morgan adopted her to save the family name from the shame of Mia having a child out of wedlock.

  
Morgan Fey had never been a happy woman. Not from the day she'd been born, destined to stand in her younger sister's shadow. Misty was a natural talent, effortlessly surpassing everything Morgan strived to do, no matter how hard her tiny hands tried. Morgan ran herself ragged for the smallest notice, the tiniest note that, oh, Misty's sister was so good too! What a talented family!

But, unlike Misty, Morgan had the safe knowledge of her birthright. She was every bit as talented as Misty, so there was doubt of her rightful succession. She wore her hair long, in traditional Kurain style, vowing never to cut it until the day of her ascension to the clan headship.

Her wedding day was flawless, covered in flowers and jewels, to a husband who was both rich and ruthlessly clever, a man she would deign to share the treasures of Kurain with. She smiled to think, finally, that she was the better woman, with two beautiful daughters to her credit, unlike Misty's single girl. She might have had her daughter earlier and basked in the warm smiles of the elders, but now Morgan was the one they fawned over, two beautiful girls clinging against her warm breasts. Proud Dahlia and gentle Iris.

Morgan was content to wait until her headship, and leave Misty to her precious Mia, who broke the Sacred Urn with her first clumsy steps. A dark cloud hung over Misty's family. Morgan could see it, like a thing cloud, a fog that hung over everything, making her shudder to see it. Tragedies awaited. But surely it was nothing the great Misty couldn't handle.

Misty had always yearned for the outside world, and her long months of pregnancy must have seemed like a cage, for, as soon as Mia was old enough, they began to take longer and longer trips away, to the city, until, one day, Misty announced she was going to stay there permanently. The elders clucked their tongues, but, after all, the branch family was unneeded in the village, so, in the end, they had no choice but to let her go. Misty's power was already to strong for them to train any further, and little Mia…

Mia, Morgan noted, out of familial concern, seemed to lack her mother's gifts. She was sensitive, in some ways, but worthless in so many others. Potential, Misty said warmly, unconcerned as she taught Mia the most childish basics her young mind could handle. A pleasant dream. Not that it really mattered. A branch family had no need for greatness.

As the years went by, her daughters grew. She eagerly assessed her girls, both so beautiful, red and black hair floating on the wind against white dresses. They shared the bond that all twins did, augmented by the seeds of talent still growing within them. She nurtured them, keeping them within the safety of the village always, two flowers in a hidden garden.

Someday, fierce Dahlia would reign as queen, just as she did. Timid Iris loved and served her sister always. Such was the natural order — the dominance of the strong, the contented following of the weak who had no talent of their own.

And so the day came when their mother passed on, Misty at her side, and her wide-eyed child crying. Morgan watched silently. A peaceful death. Dahlia's stern eyes kept her sister clam and quiet, and they stood as formally as adults. Better, even, than some of the wailing acolytes. Though her mother and aunts often spoke fondly of dreams about equal inheritance and how the headship system was no longer needed in these times, the elders began the traditional ceremony in three days. Before the entire village and the open coffin, Morgan stood proudly, her twins at either side. Misty stood up next to her, Mia holding tightly to her side, staring out at faces she hadn't seen since she was a tiny baby.

The elders spoke of ancient history, of tradition, and, as Morgan proudly started to step forward, of the great honored bestowed on…

Misty Fey.

There was silence, until a small hand reached to her mother's skirts, whispering. "Mama, that's you, Mama!" Misty smiled.

Cheers broke out. A celebration, for the new head of Kurain Village.

Morgan's previous existence vanished in the space of a blink.

The whispers were soft at first, but steadily grew louder as Misty prepared to move back to the village. The younger sister. The brilliant one. Why, of course it was.

Did you see her face when it happened? She should be used to it by now, right?

Why did we even think it wouldn't be Misty?

~

Her husband lost his patience with her. One night, he simply screamed. She'd promised him riches. Fine jewels. Full control of this backwater excuse for a village. And now there was nothing. He swore to take her daughters.

She had realized the truth, even as Misty stood up before the elders to take her vows. The truth she had blinded herself to, all these years. They had nothing. Her daughters had nothing!

Their power? What power? Proud, strong Dahlia who could charm her father into giving her anything she desired? She had no more power than her worthless cousin! And sweet, timid Iris was too weak to extract even the traces of her abilities.

Morgan's bitter laughter echoed, even as her husband's car squealed against the dirt roads, taking everything she had ever cared for. Iris's wide, tear-stained eyes, and Dahlia's knowing stare — they knew, didn't they? That she would make no move to take them back. There was no use for the useless.

Her destruction was complete.

~

Destiny was mocking her — first, by he birthright. By her talent. By her children. And so her bitterness grew, slowly. Yet there was nothing she could do that wouldn't destroy everything. There were no other heirs.

So she kept away, hidden, busying herself with mundane tasks. She did not think of her lost children, except to remind herself that they were powerless, and useless.

Misty's second child was born a few years later, and even Morgan had to admit that the girl had inherited her mother's natural ability. She grew even more bitter, watching the two girls play happily in the village. Mia's powers were flourishing alongside her sister's, though never reaching the levels little Maya possessed. Morgan found herself almost pitying the girl. Such a happy older sister, playing and protecting, only to end up the bitter head of the next branch family when Misty died.

Finally, a light shone forth, and the cloud over Misty's fate darkened again. She foolishly trusted the outside world she loved so much. And for what? To bring a storm of filthy, loud reporters shoving their bestial metal equipment into this serene village at every hour until she broke down, crying, on night in Morgan's room? She disgraced herself, disgraced the entire village and Kurain tradition, by meddling in human affairs.

Morgan's eyes looked at her without pity. The elder's voices grew dark, and there was the smallest, faintest whisper.

Morgan would never have done this to us.

And then, one day, Misty simply vanished.

Morgan could finally smile again. The rumors were finally swallowed up in the breeze when Mia left the village for school. Maya had been raised in the village, under Morgan's watchful eyes. It was her that the acolytes came to with their problems, and she who led the ceremonies. It all naturally came to her, the role she had been destined to have. With Misty gone, everything had become right again.

She calmly discouraged Mia when the girl came back with wild ideas of the outside world, of work — the same work that had driven Misty away, she said pointedly. But Mia was too strong-willed, too bent and warped by the outside world, too much her mother's daughter. So, finally, she allowed the girl to attend further schooling. In her heart, she had always seen that Mia was unfit to be a woman of Kurain. Why waste her time trying to make her meager powers expand, especially when her sister was clearly the stronger one? Why, in some ways, Mia was doing the right thing by bowing out of her duties to the village.

More years passed, and Mia's visits became less frequent. She mentioned a man — and Morgan's smile turned colder. Ah, men. The downfall of every woman in Kurain. This man, Mia loved. She admired him, and strove to work alongside him. So she came to the village less often, and kept more secrets to herself. Morgan knew very well what was stealing away her niece's heart.

One day, the darkness that Morgan had always seen darkened, the color of a sky before the storm. Another tragedy was coming swiftly towards them.

When Mia ran into her rooms, sobbing, barely able to stand, she took the girl into her arms with all the familial affection she could manage. Mia set before her a horrible tale, of death, and sorrow, and…

Dahlia Hawthorne.

Mia's vehemence against her daughter was…unappealing. Arrogant, even. The girl didn't even know her own family! Yet she laid blasphemy upon blasphemy, lies upon lies, on the child Morgan had pulled from her own womb. Beautiful, proud Dahlia, who cast away her filthy father and her foolish, devoted lover. Morgan's smile grew. Dahlia, who did every revenge she'd been bound and chained from taking. Pride swelled in her breast, even as her distaste for this other girl before her grew.

As Mia sobbed, Morgan's gaze turned, instead, towards the past. So, Misty has haunted her even to her children. What right did this failure of her sister's womb have to try and destroy her Dahlia? She would stop Mia from ever returning to that world of corruption, keep her from so much as breathing her foul breath against Dahlia's name.

Until she heard…of a baby.

Mia was pregnant. Pregnant by that man who seduced her away to the outside world, and who now…was dead at the hands of Dahlia Hawthorne. And she had not yet told anyone.

She soothed Mia's trembling body. No, this could be bad, she said, with a serpent's tongue. Ah, Dahlia, my daughter, you have stayed faithful to me even through all these years. Here was a chance. A blinding, shining chance to change everything, every sin against her, every wretched day, unable to fight back or change anything.

Give me the child, Morgan said, smiling as gently as she could. To save our family from the disgrace of a bastard birth. You can't care for a child, not like this. Not without a father. Let me have her. Give her to me. Let me care for her as my own daughter, here, in Kurain. It would be better.

Yes, Mia sobbed, so weak, so broken-hearted over a dead man, with nary a clear thought in her head. Every time her mind grew clear, Morgan poisoned it again, until Mia was certain that the child within her was nothing but a punishment and a reminder of agony.

Morgan smiled.

~

Of course, what happened after that is well-known. Morgan gave her every being to her new daughter, and before Mia could touch the tiny body called her "Pearl," the secret and precious gift, taken from such a lowly body.

Here was her chance. Pearl's power might surpass even Maya's soon. She took Pearl as her only student, leaving Maya cast adrift among the weaker members of the village, unable to harness her full potential. She kept Pearl even closer to her than she'd kept her twins, locking the precious treasure away, keeping her every thought on her wonderful mother, until, even when Mia was able to visit without crying, she couldn't dare think of telling Pearl the truth and breaking her tiny little heart.

Every fear Morgan had wasted away. Misty? Misty was never coming back. And even if she did, how many of the village were loyal to her anymore? No, Morgan had nothing to fear for losing her new power. It grew, day by day, as she brought the village further into seclusion, using Misty's own actions as the cause.

And Mia…Mia was dead, now. Murdered. Murdered by her own work. And Maya? Maya barely escaped with her life after they accused her of murder.

Her life…

Morgan stroked Pearl's hair as the small girl smiled and worked on her lesson — focusing her spiritual power into an object.

If Misty returned, so what? She would die eventually. Mia was dead. And Maya…Maya could be killed as well.

All for Pearl. Precious Pearl, who had saved her from the weak drudgery of nothingness, of a life where she could have nothing because of the will of some ancient, brainless leaders.

She saw everything in black now. Like thunderclouds. Tragedies upon tragedies were coming for Misty. But now she knew, she understood. She could control the tragedies. She could use them to bring herself to the place she had always been meant to be. To give Pearl, her Pearl, the life she was meant to have.

Nothing else mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> Author's notes: There are only two wonky things with the timeline for this fic: one, we don't know when Misty became head. Now, since Dahlia and Iris were taken from Morgan soon after that decision, and Mia, who was older than them, didn't remember them at all, it had to have been relative early. But…for my story, I'm assuming it happened when Mia was 8 and the twins 4. I'm also taking some liberties with Misty's life in and outside the village.  
> Second: Pearl was born three years before Diego was poisoned, but for obvious dramatic purposes, I'm putting those two events at about the same time. Ignore anything about that.
> 
> Not sure how I feel about what I did to Mia...but, hell, even someone as strong as she is could make a stupid decision after her lover died and her career was possibly at an end.  
> And I was thinking of some epilogue with Pearl and channeled!Mia, but it didn't fit the tone.


End file.
